The height of Italian conscripts was increasing throughout the second half of the 19th century due primarily to an increases in food intake, but also to an improvement in sanitary conditions, and diffusion of primary schooling. The increase in food intake reflects a growth in agricultural production, contrary to the standard series of national accounts. We infer from an improved estimate of agricultural output, and from the increases in physical stature that the timing of the onset of modern economic growth in Italy was substantially different from the conventional Gerschenkronian perspective.